


Never Miss a Beat

by im_ashamed



Category: RWBY
Genre: Gen, team fnki - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-06
Updated: 2016-08-06
Packaged: 2018-07-29 19:23:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7696351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/im_ashamed/pseuds/im_ashamed
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Never miss a beat, never miss a beat, never miss a beat, never miss a beat.</p><p>Playing in his head on repeat. Never freeze, never turn away. Every battle, even with the fiercest berserker, has timing and rhythm. Turns, even, as long as you can catch the beat. Set the rules and make your opponent bend to them. And if they try to change things up? Never miss a beat.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Never Miss a Beat

_Never miss a beat, never miss a beat, never miss a beat, never miss a beat._

  
Playing in his head on repeat. Never freeze, never turn away. Every battle, even with the fiercest berserker, has timing and rhythm. Turns, even, as long as you can catch the beat. Set the rules and make your opponent bend to them. And if they try to change things up?  _Never miss a beat._

  
It plays on his head on repeat through every battle. It’s in every note he plays. He doesn’t expect Neon to understand. Her style is fast and flighty, but it doesn’t have the stability a base line brings. He couldn’t believe those fucking roller blades when he first saw her. He kept staring at her feet, waiting for them to catch on something and send her flying. 

But she never missed a beat. 

  
One foot after the other. Her rhythm stayed smooth, even when it had to change for the terrain. 

  
She was fast, and with his notes beyond her she could fly on her own terms instead of gravity’s.

  
He didn’t expect her to ever notice the words that came out under his breath, the ones he mouthed even when he couldn’t speak, the words he heard in his heartbeat when he couldn’t even do that.

  
They were eating lunch one day, and her eyes caught his.

  
“Never miss a beat.” She said. They were sea green and glowed like nothing natural should.

  
“What?” He said, his voice jumping too high, belying his shock. A sour note.

  
“You say it sometimes. During battles. Sometimes when I think you’re asleep. ‘Never miss a beat’.”

  
“Yeah.”

  
She stared at him, her spoon tapping the table. 

  
“Does it mean anything?"

  
There was a tightness in his chest. This was all his family had left. It was going to be their motto, back when they thought they could ride the dust bubble to money and power. His mum made jokes about scrawling it across their crest in Latin.

  
Then the Schnee’s popped the bubble between their greedy hands, like a child playing catch. Oh, there was still money in dust, but only if you already had it. Otherwise it was just a matter of time before the big names shut you down.

  
This was their only heirloom. He couldn’t just give it away.

  
“I like it.” She continues. “It sounds good.” She says it again, and then again, her voice finding the staccato rhythm, the rhyme that doesn’t rhyme. She doesn’t mean to sing, but these words are just waiting to become lyrics, and she lets them.

  
Flynt doesn’t realize he’s smiling until she gets louder and louder, and he has to put his hands over hers to make her stop.

  
“You can’t let just anyone hear.” He says, leaning across the table so he can speak more quietly. 

  
“But it’s so beautiful.”

  
“But it’s the only thing we have.”

  
She didn’t know then. He hadn’t told them about it yet. So far it had actually been good. The four of them had spent a lot of time laughing at their own weird brand of humor. He wasn’t ready to kill the mood with his sob story.

  
But Neon knew the importance of a good secret. The way it glowed in the darkness, and brought light to places it wasn’t allowed. 

  
“Someday, it could be a battle cry.”

  
Flynt laughed. “What?”

  
“Flynt, Neon,” Prof. Oglaf began as he made his way into the cafeteria. “Don’t tell me you’re missing class so you can sit here and eat pudding pie.”

  
Neon jumped to her wheels. 

  
“Quick, Flynt, grab my hand!”

  
He didn’t miss a beat.


End file.
